MLA 论文格式及work cited

PARENTHETICAL CITATION and the WORKS CITED: MLA STYLE

Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta 2010

The MLA style (MLA Handbook, 2009) allows documentation of an abbreviated kind to appear in the body of your essay in parentheses, thus eliminating all but explanatory or elucidatory footnotes. The parenthetical citations will refer your reader to a list of “Works Cited” (see below) in which all sources quoted or referred to will be alphabetically arranged.

Parenthetical Citation

1. Author’s name mentioned. If you introduce a quotation or fact or paraphrase by mentioning the author’s name, you need only give the pagination.

An early authority on fairy tales, Henry Bett, claims that the whole

study was shoddy but “very instructive” (53).

Note: When a quotation ends with an exclamation mark or a question mark, leave the punctuation inside the quotation marks and place the period after the parentheses: Bett thought that the whole study was shoddy but “very instructive!” (53).

2. Author’s name not mentioned. If you do not mention the author’s name before you quote, you should include the last name in parentheses with no punctuation between the name and the page number

One early authority on fairy tales referred to the whole study as a shoddy but

“very instructive” exercise (Bett 53).

3. Author unknown. Some very old documents, and some very new on-line ones, may not have a known author, or may not state an author’s name. You can signal the title of the work, or include a short title in parentheses.

The Harvard Report on Baseball Deaths had no firm figures for 1911.

One source had no firm figures for 1911 (Harvard).

n.b. Book titles are italicized; article titles are placed between quotation marks.

4. Page number unknown. Many web sources have no page numbers. You may omit the page number and just use the author’s name or the title of the article.

Researchers have noticed a sharp rise in death by boredom at major golf tournaments (Duffer).

Duffer says that golfing head injuries are on the rise (“Golf Woes”).

If a web source uses paragraph or screen numbers, use “par.” or “pars.” or “Screen” in parentheses: (Duffer pars. 2-3).

5. Two or more authors. Include the last names in parentheses as they are listed in the text from which you are citing.

(Duffer and Curses 45)

For more than three authors use “et al.” (Duffer et al 45).

6. A multi-volume work. Give the number of the volume followed by a colon and then the page number.

In the second volume of Hegel’s Aesthetics, he discusses the sublime features of the puppet show

(2: 350-355).

7. Verse plays and poems. Give the act, scene, and line numbers from the play. Separate these with periods.

In King Lear Gloucester cries foul when his eyes are taken out (4.2 148-149).

Or if the play’s name is not mentioned, include it in the citation.

This is similar to the moment when Gloucester loses his eyes (Lear, 4.2 148-149).

When quoting poetry, give the line numbers and show the line breaks.

In Cowper’s, The Task, the author says that Milton’s poetry “surpassed/ The struggling efforts

Of my boyish tongue/ To speak its excellence” (4. 710-12).